Judge Holden

Submission 2,527

About

Judge Holden is a purported historical person who was a character in American fiction works like Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian. Judge Holden is characterized as tall, large, albino and evil. He's said to be a psychopath who was a scalp-hunter in Mexico and the American Southwest during the mid-19th century. Judge Holden became the subject of memes and edits in the 2020s, predominantly on TikTok. Creators often powerscaled him against other notorious and evil characters.

Origin

Judge Holden was first described in Samuel Chamberlain's memoir My Confession,^[1] written in 1850. He's described as "a man of gigantic size who rejoiced in the name of Holden, called 'Judge' Holden of Texas. Who or what he was no one knew… he stood six feet six in his moccasins, had a large fleshy frame, a dull tallow colored face destitute of hair and all expression… His desires was blood and women, and terrible stories were circulated in camp of horrid crimes committed by him."

Judge Holden is most known for his fictional portrayal in the novel Blood Meridian^[2] by Cormac McCarthy, written in 1985. Holden is a scalp-hunter and one of the book's antagonists. He is characterized similarly to Chamberlain's account.

Posts about Judge Holden date back to 2010 on 4chan's /lit/^[3] board. However, viral memes depicting Judge Holden didn't surface until the 2020s. Currently, the first known viral meme to depict Judge Holden was posted by Instagram^[4] user @brad_the_rambler on April 22nd, 2023, gaining over 1,200 likes in a year (shown below, left).

The image of Judge Holden shown in the meme was created by DeviantArt^[5] user John-D-Salvatore on May 3rd, 2018, gaining over 4,900 views and 50 favourites in six years (shown below, right).

Spread

Memes and viral posts about Judge Holden trended en masse in 2023 and 2024. For instance, on May 25th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @g_air_e posted a fan edit for Judge Holden, receiving over 672,400 plays and 14,900 likes in a year (shown below, left).

On February 24th, 2024, TikToker^[7] @koola_dv posted the I Work at a Slaughterhouse video in which the image of Judge Holden slowly faded in, gaining over 251,000 plays and 11,700 likes in three months (shown below, right).

On March 20th, 2024, TikToker^[8] @theberserkenthusiast_ posted a screenshot of their own tweet that used Judge Holden in a meme about playing with the neighbor's kids, gaining over 130,300 plays and 22,900 likes in two months (shown below, left).

On April 4th, 2024, TikToker^[9] @mattyypooo posted a similar screenshot of their own tweet, receiving over 1.1 million plays and 57,100 likes in a month (shown below, right).

Videos about Judge Holden continued on TikTok going into late April 2024, evident in a viral video shared by TikToker^[10] @drewparker2k on April 28th, 2024, who humorously criticized people who made Judge Holden into a Literally Me Character, gaining over 224,500 plays and 23,500 likes in 15 days (shown below).